A landowner living on the site of the proposed Marong Business Park has vowed to fiercely oppose any development, claiming the council will have to “take our land off us”.
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Planning Minister Richard Wynne on Thursday announced the rezoning of more than 300 hectares of land along the Calder Highway, in doing so handing over responsibility of the proposed precinct to the City of Greater Bendigo.
The city now has to decide whether farming land and a business park can co-exist, or to press ahead with voluntary or compulsory land acquisition.
Yorkshire Road resident Tamrie Carter, whose property has been in her family for five generations, said the minister’s announcement was “just the government or council ticking the next box”.
“They (city) can't run a business park alongside our farming operations, they have to take our land off us,” she said.
Five or six of Ms Carter’s neighbours were of a similar opinion.
“Nobody wants it (business park), everybody is completely opposed to it,” she said.
The business park is one of the city’s top priorities and is forecast to generate up to 3000 jobs in sectors including manufacturing, logistics, research and development and service.
But the proposal has been controversial, with the previous Bendigo council last year voting to push ahead with the development despite fierce opposition from the landowners.
An independent panel also ruled that an “uncooperative landowner and a project’s feasibility” were insufficient justification for applying a public acquisition overlay when other options were available.
Mayor Margaret O’Rourke would not be drawn on whether the council planned to acquire land for the park.
“There's still a way to go in terms of the planning amendment,” she said on Thursday.
“Council still needs to work through what the development plans for the area are and what will be required.”
A spokesperson for Minister for Planning Richard Wynne confirmed public acquisitions were a matter for the council.
No precedent has been set by the city with land acquisition.
Small sections of land have been purchased for public infrastructure like widening roads and creating roundabouts, but nothing of the scale proposed.